This post is quite different from others which were published so far. But the relevance of it is very high. This is email conversation which took place recently between Armin Weckmann (AEGEE-Darmstadt) and Ivan Bielik (AEGEE-Brno) with consent of both parties involved. The topic of the conversation is vanishing trust in the EU.
Source: www.gizmodo.co.uk
Hei, Ivan!
As one of our networks political pioneers I guess you are also aware of the fact that the EU is about to game away peoples trust – in leading German newspapers there has been articles about the trust erosion going on. However, for me this is not an effect taking place somewhere at the ”bottom of society” because of the crisis but actually I can already
feel it in my circle of friends, among relatives and students – anybody I talk to about politics at some point – and I also feel trust eroding in my own mind.
The most decisive imprint in that direction was caused by the attack of Monsanto and co. in order to make the EU prohibit seeds that are not traded by the biggest seed factories. This event as one of the most aggressive harassment upon self-determination in private life striking for essential standards (What do I want to eat?) was, sadly, not the first one.
Years before there was – and still is – Nestle trying to privatise drinkable water; some months ago discussions on EU level touching this issue made huge waves. Also, food restrictions cause great waste of food for nothing (see film: “Tast the Waste”). The things happening because of “the crisis” in Greece and other southern countries don’t need to be
mentioned…
Not only because of their doubtable morality such activities should spark our interest: It slowly corrodes sovereigny and the (imho not yet fully established and thus highly vulnerable) democratic structure of the EU – with an increasing pace. Plus I fear that it will heavily endanger our EU election program since I believe in a atmosphere of powerlessness and ignorance from above people will turn away from policy or, even worse, vote for radical parties creating a fall-back into a pre-EU mind state.
Either way, “shit is f***ed up and stuff”. Now why am I writing this? I have the urgent feeling that sth. has to be done but I am not fully clear about what it should be and how it could be initialised. The only thing I am sure about is that this issue and the related further procedure of AEGEE has to be discussed before entering EU election promotion events – maybe with a “task force”, maybe with delegates from the whole network on the next EBM.
Since you are deeply into AEGEE’s political site, how do others see this or am I the only/first one who has ants in the pants?
Best regards
Armin
Hello Armin!
First of all, thank you for your email and sharing your thoughts about the EU with me. I am glad that I am not alone with such thoughts about the EU in AEGEE. I try to respond as best as I can.
You are right that the element of trust is missing in the EU. This is serious problem if we think about the future we want. The future of the European continent lies in cooperation, not competition of nation-states. But the EU as a symbol of cooperation among states lacks trust of the inhabitants. I myself feel vanishing emotions about European project in my surroundings.
The sad news is that the EU has not done very much to reverse the flow. Instead, as you rightly point out on the examples, it seems they are doing exactly the opposite. The role of civil society is ridiculously low in the EU. Those who have impact in the EU are not citizens, but lobby groups of industry and agriculture. The European project is still about economy and profit, not about legitimacy and freedom. But I am afraid that there is long road to overcome these obstacles.
And what should we do? Well, if I have an answer for this question, I will not be in AEGEE 
First step I recognize as an essential is to discuss such problem even if not many people are interested in. Through discussion and mutual exchange of opinion we can start from the bottom and shape our view about the EU. I believe that we could change the world around us by our activities.
I am glad that you wrote me (and put trust in me) and I kindly ask you if I could post your email and my answer to the members of AEGEE and IPWG. This is kind of topic which is really relevant for everybody. This way we can collect the opinions of the others.
Have a nice day!
Ivan
Hei
You can post the mail I wrote you if you want and if it helps.
Of course also big fires start with a spark but however the “sparking process” has gone long enough in my opinion. We need more people talking and acting in their interest for shaping the EU from the bottom and yet I somehow fear the majority will just turn away in disappointment.
Also it is not my own unrest causing my eagerness but more the dimension of problems and the frequency they impinge upon policy and social or even private life – starting with your surrounding is better than rolling thumbs, nevertheless I fear this will be not enough even for holding the lobbyists at bay and keeping the as-is state. Since states and whole supra-national structures are about to bow in front of economical power (by thread or bribe doesn’t matter) there are not many institutions left as correcting elements. Actually there are enough NGOs striving for the same aim under such circumstances but many fight on their own, unfortunately AEGEE is not an exception - just think about how loosely the bonds still are between AEGEE and ESN, IAESTE and similar organisations.
Imho, unifying NGOs for a specific reason (as f.eks. helping the European citizens against a breakdown of democracy) would highly increase the attention given to our aims (us, that would be AEGEE and all other supporting organisations).
All this might sound like the preparation for a battle rather than for political involvement – however this should symbolise how serious I feel about the process going on.
Greets
Armin
What do you think about the role of the EU? How could we change things? Now this is time for us to discuss important issue which are closely related to us.
EU should command the ‘bottom line’ of the Civil Society Groups and must be aware of any corporate influence on the decision making arenas. It is coherent that EU is now coping with financial disorder which has in-out affected somehow to the efficiency of the Union. But that can be cracked with mutual-cooperation which promptly makes the optimistic future.
Dear Ivan, dear Armin,
Thank you very much for your contributions, I am very happy to meet some people within AEGEE who are also worried about the state of the European Union as it is a very important issue.
However, before coming to your agruements I would like to present myself. I am an old AEGEE member, I was president of AEGEE-Köln from 2005-2007, at the moment I am a member of AEGEE-Pisa. After my studies in Cologne I was working for three years at the German Embassy in Rome. Since 2012 I am writing a PhD thesis at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa about the euro crisis, economic governance in the euro zone and European democracy. In August I will go for one year to the US to work on my thesis at Harvard University. I just joined the AEGEE-L again yesterday, because often during my work I thought that a lot of the topics I was dealing with could/ should be very intersting for AEGEE.
I am especially interested in the point that you mentioned, Armin, that we have to get people again (or for the first time) interested in European affairs and that they need the feeling that they can influence/ change something on the European level. Two years ago I met Robert D. Putnam in Rome, one of the most influencial political scientists and I was impresed by his presentation. Putnam invented the concept of social capital after having done research in Italy for 10 years. In his work he could show that local institutions in northern Italy work much better because northern Italian regions have much more ‘social capital’, that means – in brief – because people there engage much more in politics. When he went back to the US he found out that social capital in the United States was continously decreasing in the 1990s and descibed this in his famous book ‘Bowling alone’ (2001). However, he found out that the social capital began to rise again after 2001. The reason for this was 9/11: for the young generation it was the first politically molding event that that seared into their political consciousness. The question ‘how can this people do this to us?’ made the young generation more interested not only in global/ national politics but also in local politics. They started to engage themselfes more in politics. However, the ruling Bush administration did not really give them the feeling to be able to participate and influence national decision-making. One of Putnam’s students did listen very well to this: Barak Obama. All the ‘Yes you can’-Movement was based on this theoretical framework and its main conclusion: give the young people again the feeling that they can change something. They just had to support Obamas internet election campeign in 2008.
I am convinced that in a certain sense the euro crisis is for many young European people in the southern countries the ‘first politically molding event that that seared into their political consciousness’. They realize that European integration, as it is practized right now, is influencing, or even destroying their lifes (by being unemployed ect…) but they have the feeling that they cannot influence this process at all. So what we actually need is a ‘Yes you can’-Movement to give this people the feeling that they can influence sth. AEGEE could, if you find enough interested members, play indeed a very important role here.
I also think that we have to look in a completely different way on European integration in order to be able to explain it to the people in a way they can understand. Together with my professor I am therefore working in my PhD thesis on a new paradigm for European integration. We are proposing a ‘European Republic’ as a solution for the euro crisis. This is theoretically quite differnet of a ‘European Federation of Nation States’. Republicanism in the history of political thought focuses exactly on the point you mentioned: the political engagement of citizens. However, for this breve discussion here it is a little bit to complex to explain it in detail.
I think therefore that this ideas could be very interesting for AEGEE and AEGEE should really work on the field of the engagement of European citizens. Especially since we have a new instrument since last year to influence European politics (at least a little little bit): the European Citizens Initiative. If you collect 1 mio. signatures (you can collect/ sign online via a webpage program), you can force the European Commission to start a proceedure for a new European directive. Here AEGEE could become much more active. By the way, one European Citizens Initiative that could collect already nearly 1 mio votes is about the privatization of water supply!
If you find some other people interested in this topics we could really think about creating a ‘task force’, working group or what so ever to develop concepts for European integration that AEGEE could stand up for. It is really time to change something!
Let me know!
Best,
Thilo
Hello Thilo!
Thank you for your suggestions and ideas! As for me, I am in favour of doing something for increasing political awareness of the youth about the EU.
But on the other hand, I am quite skeptical about European Citizen Initiative, because even if you collect one million of signatures the outcome of the Initiative is not mandatory for the European Commission. EC can but does not have to take it into consideration.
As also Hannah Arendt argues, we need old republican virtues for our political life. That means the culture of dialogue, engagement and participation in politics. I believe that AEGEE could help young people to embrace these republican values and it is one of the fields where we can make a difference.
Regards!
Ivan
Good afternoon, you two
As far as I understand Putnam’s theory starting the politics at the roots again requires to shake people to the core and afterwards open up possibilities in getting settled again in a more pleasant way. (This somehow remembers me of recently started local initiatives in Greece aiming for self-help.)
In that case – it sounds offensive actually – may it be a better sollution, on the long run, to rock the ship further instead of pouring oil on troubled water?
This could be passively: avoiding palliatives like f. eks. European citizen initiatives, since an initiative gives us the feeling that sth. is on the way (what may be a wrong assumtion, as Ivan already pointed out an initiative doesn’t demand a follow-up), the pressure is released from the boiling pod.
This could be actively: focusing the energy and eagerness of the people struck by the crisis, lobbyism etc. (esp. of young people in Southern Europe, victims of lobbyism…) on projects that actually rise pressure on certain points of the EU in order to enforce change. The latter has the disatvantage that we from AEGEE would actually “betray” the EU somehow – for a higher purpose, but still…
What do you assume to be feasable?
Greets
Armin
Hello guys!
I totally agree, the ECI is actually not a very strong instrument as the EC is not obliged to follow the suggestion of the ECI. Nevertheless, the EC has to write a detailed explaination why it doesn’t accept an ECI.
Launching a ECI initiative makes therfore just sense if you are able to put it in a bigger PR campaign. Just imagine: the European youth organization AEGEE launches an ECI that is somehow dealing with a democratic Europe and economic prosperity (defining an exact topic would be another difficult issue…) and somehow even succeds to get one million signatures in Europe. It would be a strong sign that the young generation in Europe wants a different Europe, an issue that all European politicians are talking about at the moment and a nice headline for some chief editors. Then the EC rejects the ECI for any reason. This would actually show that something with the current political system in the EU is not working.
Furthermore, a successful ECI, organized by a European student organization without national levels, would disaprove all theories in polital science that a ‘European Democracy’ is not possible. It would show that for certain policy interests there is something like a ‘European People’ or a ‘European Public Sphere’. The case would be very intersting for a lot of political scientists.
A rejection of the ECI by the EC could maybe become then a starting point for more drastic ideas and strategies for change. However, as a first step an ECI would give us the possibility to propose a new idea of European integration as young AEGEE people want. And it would make it possible to find much more supporters in politics and media. At the same time you can start to attrack people struck by the crisis, lobbyism etc.
The best thing would be of course to find some sarting point with which you could ‘rock the ship’ but this would also mean that you will get more antagonism instead of support. And if you could really change sth is the big question. Beppe Grillo, the Italian comedian, tries this strategy out here in Italy. He won so much votes in the last elections that he could blockade the formation of a new government for a long time. The aim of his strategy was (and is) to let the whole Italian political system explode. For Europe I see three difficulties with this strategy: First, you don’t have any possibility to influence the European decision-making process. Even if an AEGEE-Party (for example the Newropeans) would would win the next European election and blockade the European Parliament, then this would not change much due to the weak position of the parliament. Second, I would doubt that enough people would join/ support such an initiative as they are not aware enough of the problems of European decision-making processes and the democratic necissity to let citizens participate in this process. With an ECI, embedded in a pr campaign, you could raise exacly that awareness. Third, with any strategy that explicitly aims to destroy the current political system (to create a new, democratic Europe) you risk to get support from the wrong side when you start to get successful. Anti-European movements could try to climb on our bandwagon, public media will start to push us on the right wing.
The crucial point is to define the topic of the ECI very good. It has to be somehow ‘sexy’, it should maybe even embarace the EC if they would have to accept this ECI. This way you could give the people the feeling that they can somehow influence European politics directly.
Of course, if you have any other idea then an ECI let me know! It is fore sure not the perfect instrument, just the best one that came to my mind till now!
Best regards
Thilo
There are actually plenty of particulars like that to take into consideration. That is a nice point to deliver up. I provide the ideas above as normal inspiration however clearly there are questions like the one you bring up the place the most important factor will probably be working in honest good faith. I don?t know if finest practices have emerged around things like that, however I’m certain that your job is clearly identified as a good game. Each girls and boys feel the affect of only a second’s pleasure, for the rest of their lives.